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Pronunciation of ‘island’ in English
Did you know that “island” used to be written “iland” before the 16th century? Although an island indeed is land surrounded by water, (...)
January 28, 2014 – Jakub Marian – English
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Pronunciation of ‘a’ and ‘the’ before ‘u’ and ‘h’ in English
This is a very important topic overlooked by many learners. Of course, perhaps even during the very first English lesson, everyone learns (...)
January 25, 2014 – Jakub Marian – English
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Pronunciation of ‘archangel’ and ‘archenemy’ in English
In contrast to “arch” /ɑːtʃ/ (aatch) (UK), /ɑːrtʃ/ (artch) (US), “archangel” is pronounced with a hard “ch”, i.e. (...)
January 24, 2014 – Jakub Marian – English
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“Fish fish fish eat eat eat” is a grammatically correct sentence in English (with explanation)
Recently, I read that “fish fish fish eat eat eat” is an example of a strange but grammatically correct sentence. It took me some time to (...)
January 22, 2014 – Jakub Marian – English
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“Classic” vs. “classical” in English
The word “classic” can be either an adjective or a noun. There’s a beautiful and witty quote by Mark Twain explaining quite well what the (...)
January 19, 2014 – Jakub Marian – English
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By the way, have you already seen my brand new web app for non-native speakers of English? It's based on reading texts and learning by having all meanings, pronunciations, grammar forms etc. easily accessible. It looks like this:
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Each other’s vs. each others’ in English
Learners of English (and native speakers alike) sometimes wonder whether they are supposed to write each other’s or each others’ (or even (...)
January 15, 2014 – Jakub Marian – English
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Pronunciation of the letter ‘Z’ in American and British English
In short, the British pronounce “Z” as /zɛd/ (zed) whereas Americans pronounce it as /ziː/ (zee). Note that the same pronunciation is (...)
January 15, 2014 – Jakub Marian – English
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‘Learnt’ vs. ‘learned’ in English
Both “learned” and “learnt” are considered correct as the past tense and past participle of “learn”. However, take a look at the following (...)
January 15, 2014 – Jakub Marian – English
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The name of the dot above “i” and “j”
This article could have contained just one word: tittle. Tittle, unsurprisingly pronounced /ˈtɪtl/, is the name used in typography for (...)
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‘Matter’ vs. ‘question of time’ in English
The equivalent to the phrase “a matter/question of time” in most European languages is literally “a question of time”, e.g. una cuestión (...)
January 10, 2014 – Jakub Marian – English
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